Betting on sports and other events is a multi-billion dollar business for casinos and the Internet around the world. Land-based casinos have large sports and event betting parlors for attracting bettors. These parlors display the bets that a person may make on various sporting or types of events. Bets are placed on most major sports including professional and college football, soccer, baseball, basketball, auto racing, and ice hockey, as well as cricket, rugby. Further, bets are placed on various sports tournaments including the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Championships and World Cup Soccer. Also, bets may be placed on other types of events including a selection of the winner of a reality television show (e.g., the Survivor reality show), when the first person lands on Mars, the winner of the next United States Presidential election, or any other type of event.
Land-based casinos generally restrict bettors to place their bets and pay for them on-site (e.g., in the casino). Because of this requirement, it is thought that sports and event bettors will then play other games at the land-based casino. For some casinos, bets may also be placed by kiosks placed throughout the casino so that the bettor need not travel too far from where they may be playing other games to place bets. A few land-based casinos presently take sports and event bets completely over the Internet where the bettor makes and pays for the bet on-line. Additionally, websites that exclusively perform on-line betting and numerous Internet-only casinos (with no land-based counterpart) now take sports and event bets. There is a present and recurring need for new methods for making sports and event bets that are advantageous to both the bettor and to the bet-taking establishment.